Homily for the Week of January 15, 2012

Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2012
1 Samuel 3:3-10.19 Psalm 39 1 Corinthians 6:13-15.17-20 John 1:35-42


If you were listening carefully to the first reading some of you may have thought that God is really a good father. He tells his son: GO BACK TO SLEEP, IT IS NOT YET TIME FOR YOU TO COME TO WORK. All three of our readings for today are invitations by God and Jesus to do something for others.


True, there is the notion of sleeping, but God is going way beyond that. He is actually calling Samuel and Peter, and Andrew and others to work with him as his friends. The word call or invitation appears 11 times in our three Bible readings for today. First God calls Samuel. And Samuel with the help of God, his spiritual director, learns to figure out the call and to respond to it. Samuel says; SPEAK LORD FOR YOUR SERVANT IS LISTENING. The idea of sleeping really is God saying that we can not figure out God's invitation for us unless we take time to be quiet, and take out of our life all that is noise or distractions.


Counting today, we will be reading from St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians for five Sundays and from Second Corinthians afterwards. To best understand these Bible readings it is important to know a little about the city of Corinth. Corinth was a Greek city. Corinth was the most important trade city of ancient Greece, and it remained important to the Roman Empire. Sailing was very hazardous, and rounding the southern tip of Greece was dangerous. To avoid this area, shipping between Rome and Asia used the isthmus at Corinth for portage. Ships unloaded their cargoes, and the goods were carried overland to be reloaded on another ship at the opposite port.


Thus, Corinth was called the bridge of the seas. Corinth had two patronal deities: Poseidon, god of the sea, and Aphrodite, goddess of sexual love. The Temple of Aphrodite was central to the worship of Aphrodite, and, like a lot ancient Greek cities, it had prostitutes who were available to the people of the city and to visitors. Their income provided a major source of the city’s income.


Merchants and sailors, anxious to work the docks, migrated to Corinth. Athletes participating in the Isthmian games and professional gamblers who gambled on the games lived there. Homeless slaves, free or runaway, roamed the streets day and night. The practice of prostitution coupled with a mixed and transient population, gave Corinth a terrible reputation. Athens was another Greek city. The people of Athens invented the term, “to Corinthianize,” which meant to live an immoral life. To call anyone “a Corinthian” meant that the person was immoral.


St. Paul was forced to address the issues of immorality directly. Our passage today reads, “The body, however, is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body.” He taught the Corinthians that our bodies are meant for the Lord. Our bodies are members of Christ. Paul tells us that we should be united with the Lord and thus become one in spirit with Christ; therefore, the body is a temple of the Holy Spirit.


Each of us here have been called by God when we were Baptized as was Jesus by John the Baptist. But that was just the beginning. Just like none of us would ever want to stay as we were when we were babies, so too I hope that none of us want to have just the faith and religion that we had when we were Baptized. As we have grown up we have also grown in partnership with Christ. But, quoting St. Paul, at times in our years of growing up we might have allowed ourselves to be Corinthianize. But inspite of this we have also tried to respond more fully to what Christ and our religion demands of us. And also how others need us. Very many of you here you already heard God say to you that he needs you as husband and wife, as father and mother; but for an equally large number of you here Jesus has yet to to give you his final need, and you have not yet given your final yes.


That is what happened to those that Jesus called as apostles. These were men who were mostly fishermen, the trade of the time. But they must have been men who were living in such a way that they would be available to God if he needed them. Along comes Jesus. WHAT DO YOU WANT US TO DO, THEY ASK HIM. And Jesus turns to them and asks; WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR? After some conversation they continue: WHERE DO YOU STAY? And Jesus responds: COME AND SEE. He invites them to come and to see. And they did, and because they did they became the first of Jesus followers.


In trying to bring people to Jesus, Paul changed attitudes and behaviors. At times we need to do the same for ourselves. Next Sunday is the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion. Although rendered 39 years ago, the decision still affects our moral attitudes toward human life and the human person. Samuel did not recognize the voice of God because he was unfamiliar with the Lord. We are very familiar with the Lord, and we know what Christ has taught and the implications of his teaching. Just as Eli told Samuel to say, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening,” we must say the same. Unlike Samuel, the word of the Lord has been revealed to us.


St. Paul called people to a radical change in behavior. We must not forget that nothing has changed since Paul spoke to the Corinthians. Our bodies are still the Lord’s, and we must use them to glorify the Lord. We do this only by uniting ourselves with Him and with the whole Body of Christ. This week, let each of us try to listen carefully to whatever change God is calling us. When God speaks to us let us respond: SPEAK, LORD, FOR YOUR SERVANT IS LISTENING.